The SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER, a GUARDIAN book of the month, praised by authors such as PAULA HAWKINS and JANE HARPER and chosen by VAL McDERMID for her prestigious New Blood Selection;TALL BONES marks the debut of an exceptional new talent.

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE MONTH
‘A wonderfully haunting debut.’ JANE HARPER, author of The Dry
‘Irresistible, compelling.’ PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train
‘Vividly realised.’ VAL McDERMID
‘Brilliant.’ SJ WATSON, author of Before I Go to Sleep

When seventeen-year-old Emma leaves her best friend Abi at a party in the woods, she believes, like most girls her age, that their lives are just beginning. Many things will happen that night, but Emma will never see her friend again.

Abi’s disappearance cracks open the fa ade of the small town of Whistling Ridge, its intimate history of long-held grudges and resentment. Even within Abi’s family, there are questions to be asked – of Noah, the older brother whom Abi betrayed, of Jude, the shining younger sibling who hides his battle scars, of Dolly, her mother and Samuel, her father – both in thrall to the fire and brimstone preacher who holds the entire town in his grasp. Then there is Rat, the outsider, whose presence in the town both unsettles and excites those around him.

Anything could happen in Whistling Ridge, this tinder box of small-town rage, and all it will take is just one spark – the truth of what really happened that night out at the Tall Bones….

‘Tall Bones brilliantly conjures up the oppressive claustrophobia of the small town… Extremely well written… fantastic.’ HARRIET TYCE, author of Blood Orange

‘A clever, twisting debut, about the dark side of small town America. It is packed with secrets like firecrackers ready to ignite.’ FRANCINE TOON, author of Pine

‘ Its portrait of small-town intrigue is scarily credible.’ VAL McDERMID

‘Smart and compassionate, full of poetry and rage and shy hopes and shredded dreams and missing girls and family secrets and the dark, shameful underbelly of small town life.’ TAMMY COHEN, author of Stop at Nothing

‘Tall Bones is as brutal, as bittersweet, as tender and as tense as first love itself.’ EMMA FLINT, author of Little Deaths

‘Tall Bones is as atmospheric as it gets – a stunning debut that delivers on every level.’ RENEE KNIGHT, author of Disclaimer

‘Chilling and compulsive. Tall Bones is a dazzling debut.’ KATE HAMER, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

‘A terrific debut about guilt, secrets and complex family dynamics… Anna Bailey is definitely one to watch.’ LUCY ATKINS, author of Magpie Lane

Author Biography

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.